Rocket Science for Kids! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Astronautics

As aeronautics is the science of regular atmospheric flight, astronautics is the science of space and rocket flight.
It is a branch of a discipline called aerospace engineering, which means it deals with machines that are made to leave the Earth's atmosphere and go out into space.

Answer: Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton first published his "Principia Mathematica" in July 1687.
It is the math laid out in Newton's three Laws of Motion, coupled with his Universal Law of Gravitation that is fundamental to all rocket science and space flight.

Answer: Escape Velocity

The existence of escape velocity is because of a rule (or law) of physics called the Law of Conservation of Energy.
The escape velocity for the planet Earth is approximately 34 times the speed of sound, or 11.2 kilometres per second.
If a rocket is traveling slower than this speed, when the boost cuts off, the Earth's gravity will 'catch' it, and it will fall back to the ground.
Rockets can leave Earth without reaching escape velocity directly from their launch, by placing them into a lower orbit and then boosting again to a higher one. The escape velocity is not the speed needed to leave the planet, but the speed needed to overcome the force of gravity pulling the rocket back.
If a rocket managed to achieve escape velocity whilst still at low altitude, it would probably burn up in the atmosphere like a meteorite. This is why rockets boost in stages rather than using a 'gun like' arrangement to just shoot them straight out into space.

Answer: false

Perhaps surprisingly, both rockets need to go at the same speed in order to escape the Earth's gravity.
The escape velocity for two rockets, launched from the same spot on the Earth's surface, is exactly the same, regardless of how much they each weigh!
What will change is the amount of energy needed to get them there. A big rocket needs much more energy in terms of thrust, or power, to get into space, than a small one needs.

Answer: Atmospheric drag

The atmospheric drag is the friction force exerted on a rocket by the Earth's atmosphere as the rocket travels through it. Extra energy is needed during the boost in order to overcome the drag and get the rocket out into space.
As the rocket moves higher, the atmosphere gets thinner and the atmospheric drag on the rocket gets smaller.

Answer: Voyager 1 and 2

Voyager 1 and 2 visited Saturn, Jupiter, Neptune, and Uranus on their way out of our Solar System.
They will continue on their journey through space for many more years, only stopping if an accident befalls them.
They reached a region of space known as the heliosheath early in 2009, and are heading for the heliopause; the heliopause marks the extreme limits of our Sun's gravitational field, and is thus classed as the end of our solar system.
On board the Voyager probes is a "Golden record" - this has recordings of voices, music, sounds, and pictures from Earth, just in case the probes are ever found by alien life forms somewhere out in space.
The message with the golden record says "This is a present from a small, distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts and our feelings. We are attempting to survive our time so we may live into yours." which was said by President Carter of the USA.

Answer: 25 kilos

Your mass on the Moon, or anywhere else in the Universe for that matter, will be exactly the same as it is here on Earth.
Lots of people get confused with the difference between mass (measured in kilos or pounds etc) and weight, which is a force, measured in Newtons (symbol N).
The "standard gravity" on the surface of the Earth is a constant of 9.81 metres per second (m/s). What this means is that weight is equal to mass multiplied by 9.81 - our 25 kilo mass actually weighs 25 X 9.81 so 245.25 Newtons.
Mass is the "amount of stuff" in an object and is the same on the Moon as on Earth, but the gravity of the Moon is approximately one sixth of that of Earth. This is because the Moon is much smaller than Earth.
On the Moon, our 25 kilo mass will weigh 25 X 1.64 = 40.96 Newtons.
If you are prepared to risk your pocket money for the rest of your life, explain this to your Mum next time she's getting weighed, and point out that she actually weighs 9.81 times as much as the reading on the scales. Wear running shoes! :-D

Answer: Science Fiction Writer

A geostationary orbit is a special orbit where a satellite orbits above the equator, at the same speed as the Earth rotates. To an observer on the ground, the satellite seems to "hang there" above the same point on the ground, and not move at all.
Arthur C. Clarke is most famous for his science fiction books which include "2001: A Space Odyssey", published in 1968, and made into a film by Stanley Kubrik, also in 1968.
It was Clarke's paper "Extra-Terrestrial Relays - Can Rocket Stations Give Worldwide Radio Coverage?" (published in "Wireless World" magazine in 1945), which first brought the idea of the geostationary orbit to the attention of the general public. These orbits are even sometimes called "Clarke Orbits", and there are more than 110 satellites in geostationary Earth orbit in the western hemisphere alone.

Answer: Robert Goddard

Although Robert Goddard is mainly remembered for his pioneering work on rockets, he also invented the bazooka gun, at the end of World War I.
In the 1930s he moved to New Mexico and set up his rocketry research facility near a little town named Roswell...

Answer: Saturn V

The Saturn V rockets were the biggest and most powerful rockets ever launched. They were designed to boost the actual "spaceship" part of the Lunar Module up into space. Each one was made up of three separate stages, and by firing one after the other, they boosted the Lunar Module in stages, going higher each time, until it was finally free of the Earth's atmosphere and on its way to the Moon. After they had fired they were jettisoned (dumped) and either fell back to Earth or went into orbit. At least two Saturn V stages from the Apollo missions are still out in space, and are tracked by NASA as Near Earth Objects.